1989 British Grand Prix

  1989 British Grand Prix

Race details
Race 8 of 16 in the 1989 Formula One season
Date	16 July 1989
Official name	XLII Shell British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit Silverstone, Northamptonshire
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.778 km (2.969 mi)
Distance	64 laps, 305.904 km (190.080 mi)
Weather	Warm, dry, sunny
Pole position
Driver	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:09.099
Fastest lap
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari
Time	1:12.017 on lap 57
Podium
First	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda
Second	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari
Third	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford

The 1989 British Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Silverstone on 16 July 1989.

Report

McLaren went into the race with a new oil system and transverse gearbox which was feared to be unreliable. Nethertheless, the Woking team took control of qualifying with Senna ahead of Prost. Prost announced before the race he would be leaving McLaren at the end of the season. Gugelmin's March developed a water related problem moments before the race and therefore had to start the race from the pit lane. Derek Warwick started the race with a special seat despite a karting accident which resulted in back pain. Nelson Piquet was looking good having qualified well and been 7th fastest in the warm-up. Prost managed to gain the better start at the green light but Senna was later on the brakes and re-took the lead going into Copse Corner. For the first few laps it was very close between Senna, Prost, Mansell and Berger. But then Berger pulled into the pits at the end of lap 4 with electrical problems. The Austrian rejoined the race some laps later. On lap 5 the race order was Senna, Prost, Mansell, Boutsen, Patrese and Nannini. The leading trio were breaking clear of the rest with Mansell encouraging the British crowd by making the fastest lap on lap 6, 1.6 behind the leader and on lap 7 and 10 too. Piquet and Capelli both forced their way past Martini into P7 and P8 and closed on Nannini. The Ferrari looked quicker through the fast sweeping corners of Silverstone. Ayrton Senna spun out of the lead on lap 12 going into Becketts due to gear selection problems, allowing his team-mate Alain Prost to take the lead ahead of the Ferrari of Nigel Mansell. Patrese being hounded by Nannini and Piquet out-braked Boutsen going under the bridge before Woodcote to take third position. However, on lap 19 Patrese had a huge accident at Club Corner, the Williams swapping ends and skidding over the gravel into the tyre barrier on the outside. As the leading duo began lapping the midfielders,Prost began to extend his lead, helped by the power of the Honda engine. On lap 22, the race order was Prost 2.5 seconds ahead of Mansell, Boutsen a further 32 seconds behind, half a second ahead of Piquet (Nannini had pitted for new tyres) who was 25 seconds ahead of Alliot who was 1 second of Jean Alesi in his second ever Grand Prix. Piquet having his best race of the year, then outbraked Boutsen under the bridge just as Patrese had to claim third position on lap 23. On lap 29 Prost lead Mansell by 3.2 seconds, Piquet was 42 seconds behind the leader, Nannini 62 seconds behind Prost, Gugelmin who started at the back 64 seconds behind and in 6th position was Alliot one lap down. Alesi retired having spun at the exit of Club Corner. Prost had built up a cushion of between 7-9 seconds before, on lap 42, Mansell's Ferrari developed a puncture on the front right tyre, causing the car to drag on the surface with smoke and sparks. Mansell crawled back to the pits from Hangar Straight and made a pitstop which took 11 seconds, 54 seconds behind Prost and still in second position. Prost then made what seemed a precautionary pitstop for tyres but a problem with fitting the right rear meant it was 25 seconds before he was released off the jacks. His lead over Mansell has been reduced to 12 seconds. On lap 56 Nannini passed Piquet to claim the final podium position.

Minardi needed to score at least 3 points to avoid "relegation" to the pre-qualifying sessions (or a 5th with the other car better than the best Onyx and at least 12th, without Larini in the Osella or the Larrousse Team scoring more points), and they actually achieved that with the two drivers, Pierluigi Martini and Luis Pérez-Sala finishing 5th and 6th with Larini and both Larrousses retiring, although Sala finished less than a second ahead of the Ligier of Frenchman Olivier Grouillard. Sala scored his first Formula One points. This meant that Onyx was not able to "promote" themselves out of pre-qualifying, despite scoring a 5th place with Stefan Johansson at Paul Ricard.

Classification

Pre Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford	1:11.506	—
2	17	Nicola Larini	Osella-Ford	1:11.766	+0.260
3	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	1:11.809	+0.303
4	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd	1:12.021	+0.515
5	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	1:12.248	+0.742
6	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1.12.501	+0.995
7	33	Gregor Foitek	Euro Brun-Judd	1:13.128	+1.622
8	18	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford	1:13.429	+1.923
9	41	Yannick Dalmas	AGS-Ford	1:13.720	+2.214
10	34	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed-Yamaha	1:14.124	+2.618
11	32	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Coloni-Ford	1:14.206	+2.700
12	35	Aguri Suzuki	Zakspeed-Yamaha	1:14.266	+2.760
13	39	Volker Weidler	Rial-Ford	1:15.096	+3.590

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:09.124	1:09.099	—
2	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	1:10.156	1:09.266	+0.167
3	27	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari	1:09.488	1:10.279	+0.389
4	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:09.855	1:10.130	+0.756
5	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:09.865	1:09.963	+0.766
6	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	1:10.336	1:12.665	+1.237
7	5	Thierry Boutsen	Williams-Renault	1:10.376	1:10.771	+1.277
8	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	1:10.650	1:11.544	+1.551
9	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	1:11.034	1:10.798	+1.699
10	11	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Judd	1:11.589	1:10.925	+1.826
11	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:11.368	1:11.582	+2.269
12	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Lamborghini	1:11.541	1:12.408	+2.442
13	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Lamborghini	1:12.193	1:11.687	+2.588
14	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	1:12.262	1:11.755	+2.656
15	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	1:11.955	1:11.826	+2.727
16	12	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Judd	1:12.326	1:11.960	+2.861
17	17	Nicola Larini	Osella-Ford	1:12.061	1:12.395	+2.962
18	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	1:12.070	1:12.157	+2.971
19	9	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Ford	1:12.295	1:12.208	+3.109
20	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd	1:12.616	1:12.327	+3.228
21	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford	1:12.329	1:12.928	+3.230
22	4	Jean Alesi	Tyrrell-Ford	1:12.994	1:12.341	+3.242
23	31	Roberto Moreno	Coloni-Ford	1:12.680	1:12.412	+3.313
24	26	Olivier Grouillard	Ligier-Ford	1:12.853	1:12.605	+3.506
25	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Dallara-Ford	1:13.335	1:12.904	+3.805
26	20	Emanuele Pirro	Benetton-Ford	1:13.233	1:13.148	+4.049
27	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Ford	1:13.240	1:13.550	+4.141
28	10	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Ford	1:13.655	1:13.386	+4.287
29	40	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:13.496	1:13.997	+4.397
30	38	Christian Danner	Rial-Ford	1:15.387	1:15.394	+6.288

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	64	1:19:22.131	2	9
2	27	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari	64	+ 19.369	3	6
3	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	64	+ 48.019	9	4
4	11	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Judd	64	+ 1:06.735	10	3
5	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	63	+ 1 Lap	11	2
6	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	63	+ 1 Lap	15	1
7	26	Olivier Grouillard	Ligier-Ford	63	+ 1 Lap	24
8	12	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Judd	63	+ 1 Lap	16
9	9	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Ford	62	+ 2 Laps	19
10	5	Thierry Boutsen	Williams-Renault	62	+ 2 Laps	7
11	20	Emanuele Pirro	Benetton-Ford	62	+ 2 Laps	26
12	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford	62	+ 2 Laps	21
Ret	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	54	Gearbox	6
Ret	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd	49	Engine	20
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	49	Gear Fire	4
Ret	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Lamborghini	46	Engine	13
Ret	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Lamborghini	39	Engine	12
Ret	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	32	Accident	18
Ret	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	31	Engine	14
Ret	4	Jean Alesi	Tyrrell-Ford	28	Spun Off	22
Ret	17	Nicola Larini	Osella-Ford	23	Handling	17
Ret	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	19	Radiator/Accident	5
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	15	Transmission	8
Ret	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Dallara-Ford	14	Engine	25
Ret	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	11	Spun Off	1
Ret	31	Roberto Moreno	Coloni-Ford	2	Gearbox	23
DNQ	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Ford
DNQ	10	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Ford
DNQ	40	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford
DNQ	38	Christian Danner	Rial-Ford
DNPQ	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford
DNPQ	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford
DNPQ	33	Gregor Foitek	Euro Brun-Judd
DNPQ	18	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford
DNPQ	41	Yannick Dalmas	AGS-Ford
DNPQ	34	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed-Yamaha
DNPQ	32	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Coloni-Ford
DNPQ	35	Aguri Suzuki	Zakspeed-Yamaha
DNPQ	39	Volker Weidler	Rial-Ford

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alain Prost 47 2 Ayrton Senna 27 3 Riccardo Patrese 22 4 Nigel Mansell 21 5 Thierry Boutsen 13

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 74 2 Williams-Renault 35 3 Ferrari 21 4 Benetton-Ford 17 5 Tyrrell-Ford 10

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

• Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". Archived

from the original on 4 July 2007. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1989/238/. Retrieved 2007-08-04. 

Previous race: 1989 French Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1989 season	Next race: 1989 German Grand Prix
Previous race: 1988 British Grand Prix	British Grand Prix	Next race: 1990 British Grand Prix

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